Fellowship and Residency Program Directors Should Empower Residents with all of their Options for Physician Specialty Certification

At the American Board of Physician Specialties® (ABPS), we encourage all fellowship and residency program directors to give their staff the information they need to make the right decision when it comes to considering physician specialty certification. The business side of medicine has greatly changed over the last 50 years, and the need for a physician to be able to prove his or her expertise in a specialty area is more important today than ever. As a result, board certification has become an industry standard that is practically mandatory for demonstrating competency in the field. At the ABPS, we know how important board certification and re-certification is to physicians, and we have worked very hard to develop a number of highly respected member boards for our candidates to consider.

In North America, there are only three nationally recognized multi-specialty physician certifying organizations: the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), the American Osteopathic Association® (AOA), and the ABPS. Each organization is established, well regarded, and trusted to provide board certification to the most qualified physicians in the healthcare industry. Yet, each member organization also has its own unique advantages. At the ABPS, for example, we have options for board certification that aren’t available anywhere else. As healthcare has become more specialized, we’ve expanded to accommodate these new areas of expertise. For instance, we have options for physicians who have extensive training in:

Integrative medicine

Hospital medicine

Administrative medicine

Urgent care

Disaster medicine

Family medicine/obstetrics

Additionally, our Board of Certification in Emergency Medicine® offers the opportunity for primary care physicians who have made their careers in the emergency room to pursue board certification in Emergency Medicine. This is so important because as many as 80 percent of emergency department physicians in rural America are not board certified in EM in part because they completed their residency training in a field other than Emergency Medicine. These physicians deserve to be eligible to pursue certification in their area of expertise, and BCEM was developed to provide this opportunity to qualified individuals.

The point is that, as physicians complete their residency training, they should be encouraged to research all of the options available to them. Ultimately, we all want the same outcome: for the best and brightest physicians in America to receive the recognition they deserve. To learn more, contact us today. The ABPS is the official certifying body of the American Association of Physician Specialists, Inc.®